Palestinians: New Israeli Elections Spell the End for Trump’s Peace Plan

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Special Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, White House adviser Jared Kushner, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer, meeting in Jerusalem on June 22, 2018. Photo: US Embassy in Israel.

JNS.org– According to a senior Palestinian Authority source, Israel’s new elections, currently set for Sept. 17, will postpone the presentation of US President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan until after the 2020 elections in the United States and thus “relegate it to the dustbin of history.”

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, speaking from Saudi Arabia, said that the Palestinians were satisfied with the developments in Israel, and estimated that the so-called “the deal of the century will not be implemented.“ Erekat was in Saudi Arabia last weekend as part of the Palestinian delegation to the Arab League meeting in Mecca.

The remarks came as senior Trump adviser Jared Kushner and US Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt made their way to Israel for a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The meeting, scheduled for Thursday, was set based on the assumption that Netanyahu would manage to form a government.Before traveling on to Israel, Kushner and Greenblatt stopped in Amman, Jordan to meet with King Abdullah. The king declared after the meeting only that it “dealt with regional issues and the possibility of renewing the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas also stopped off in Jordan on the way back from Saudi Arabia, to meet with the envoy of the king of Bahrain and officially inform him that the Palestinians would not be participating in the upcoming “economic workshop” in Bahrain. The Bahrain conference is being sponsored by the United States as part of the promotion of Trump’s Mideast peace plan.

The Jordanian king agreed yesterday to send representatives to the Bahrain conference, but added that Jordan would only support an agreement that included the two-state solution.